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[Primer/Deck] Pox

If you like disruptve strategies, eliminating cards from your opponents hand, destroying their lands, making them sacrifice their creatures, & eating away at their life total while essentially controlling the game state with your resource attacking playstyle, then a Pox deck type strategy might be just what you're looking for.

1) Playing Pox:
You ultimate goal is to kill your opponent, in order to achieve that goal playing Pox, you want to take control of the board state to win the game. The avenue you'll take to do this will be in the form of the best disruption that Swamps have to offer. Against any deck, discard spells will remove vital cards from their hand, Land destruction will keep decks cut off from their larger spells & narrow their options in the gameplay, & creatures that hit the battlefield will be kept under control with multiple ways to make them sacrifice a creature. As far as the kill condition, once you've spend the first few turns destroying their hand & board state, you will win over the course of the following turns taking their life down with Nether Spirit, Mishra's Factory & Cursed Scroll, while continuing to prevent them from doing too much of anything relevant with your disruption that your deck is so full of.

Alot of your spells will be a "2 for 1" or even, potentially higher (Like Liliana of the Veil for example)
~Speaking of Liliana of the Veil, eating their hand apart and making them sacrifice creatures so much, this card can easily tick up against many opposing strategies in Legacy, getting to the point of a "soft lock." An example being that they keep a creature in hand, only to have it discarded, or put it into play, only to have it sacrificed, the whole deck compliments Liliana, & Liliana compliments the decks strategy as a whole very well, Liliana of the Veil can be noted as the card that finally brought recent Pox decks to the level of success they have had since the printing of the 1BB Planeswalker.
~Hymn to Tourach can nail 2 cards in their hand.
~Smallpox can nail an opposing land, creature, & card in hand, while you'll be ditching something like Nether Spirit, a useless card, or have an empty hand already. As far as sacrificing a creature yourself, your deck is setup to benefit further from such effects, since the Nether Spirit just comes right back on the upkeep, & Mishra's Factorys are only creatures when animated.
~Cursed Scroll can eat multiple creatures when the opposing strategy is filled with cheap creatures, not to mention that Nether Spirit can also do the same thing just by blocking & coming back every turn.

The emphasis here is the card advantage, this deck is setup to be disruptive, & play some of the most effective Swamp tapping cards you can throw at your opponent in the format that is Legacy.

Early game: Start out doing what Pox does best, disrupting the game state as much as possible, focus on eating away at their hand with your discard, keep their creatures down with your "make them sacrifice a creature" effects that Pox is so full of. Use your Nether Spirit as a blocker that can potentially take out opposing creatures just by blocking, worst case scenario it prevents damage like a wall that never goes away since it reanimate's itself on the upkeep.

Mid game: Stabilizing the board state, if you have a Liliana of the Veil at this point this is where it will start ticking up now that your opponents resources are dwindled by your strategy, continue keeping creatures off the board and cards out of their hand, Liliana is especially good here against combo decks, if you get it to the mid game and drop the planeswalker, it can prevent them from gaining too many cards in hand, sometimes you can get them to the point of having no cards in hand entirely, if that's the case, most combo decks at this point, especially storm combo based decks, will be under control & all you have to do is finish them off for the win.

Late game: Continue keeping control of the board state, the opponent can top deck stuff, but since some of your disruption is in the form of Land Destruction, they may not even be able to play their later game bombs because they just don't have the resources. As far as your side of the board, whenever you get the chance & the board state remains under your control, do 2 damage to them getting their life total down toward 0, whether it's with Nether Spirit and Mishra's Factory in combat, or a Cursed Scroll activation at the end of their turn.

History: Variants of Pox have been in Legacy as far back as it being called type 1.5, Mono Black being the most popular builds. For the more current incarnation of Pox, sometimes known as "Liliana Pox" in today's Legacy, we go back to the end of 2011, when Reid Duke piloted Pox with Liliana of the Veil for the Legacy portion of an SCG Invitational, going 5-1-1 in the Legacy portion:

3a) Maindeck: (average #, when ran)Hand Disruption:Inquisition of Kozilek (4) With the low mana curve of Legacy, this card almost always hits something, making it an almost perfect 1 mana discard spell.Hymn to Tourach (4) 2 for 1, at random, & can even hit lands and slow the opponents opening hand down.Thoughtseizenon traditional Usually in sideboard when ran, other discard preferred because of the -2 life with Thoughtseize.Duressnon traditional Usually in sideboard when ran.Raven's Crimenon traditional Seen in rogue lists.Funeral Charmnon traditional Seen in rogue lists.

Creature Disruption:Innocent Blood (4) Probably the best converted mana cost 1, creature removal available, doesn't target, great synergy with so many sacrifice a creature to the opponent effects.Cursed Scroll (3) 2 damage to a creature, or a player's life total, acts as both removal & a kill condition.Spinning Darkness (1-2) non traditional Usually in the sideboard, but sometimes there's a copy in the maindeck.

Land Disruption:Sinkhole (4) Slow them down, cut them off of a color, answer problematic lands, etc. Can even cut them out of casting spells completely with so much Land Disruption in Pox.Wasteland (4) Uncounterable nonbasic land hate.Ghost Quarternon traditional seen in rogue lists.Rishadan Portnon traditional seen in rogue lists.

Multiple disruption from 1 source:Pox (1-2) Even though the deck is called Pox, since the inclusion of Liliana of the Veil, the card Pox itself is usually just a 1 of in the deck when ran.Smallpox (4) Your deck is setup to fully take advantage of "Pox" like effects that hit both players, almost always affecting them much more than it affects you.Liliana of the Veil (4) Recurring discard, can be recurring creature removal as well, & even "ultimate" to cut the opponents remaining permanents in half.Ratched Bombnon traditional Usually in sideboard when ran.Powder Kegnon traditional Usually in sideboard when ran.

Other permanents:Nether Void Usually only a 1-2 of when ran, as a lockout taxing affect.The Abyss Usually only a 1-2 of when ran, & more in the sideboard than maindeck.Crucible of Worldsnon traditional seen in rogue lists, can allow recurring Wasteland's / Mishra's Factory's.Sensei's Divining Topnon traditional seen in rogue lists.

Mana sources:Dark Ritual (4) A turn 1 Liliana can be alot of pressure against some decks, or turn 1 Hymn to Tourach + Inquisition of Kozilek, as an example.Swamp (8-12) Whatever your land base, you'll want a minimum 24 lands.Bojuka Bog (4) non traditional seen in few maindecks, basically a swamp that comes into play tapped, that can also give game 1 graveyard hate.Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth (4) Make your Wastelands & Mishra's Factorys produce Swamp mana.

Creatures:Nether Spirit (2) Reanimates itself when it's the only creature in your graveyard.Mishra's Factory (4) make a 2/2 for 1 mana, also taps for 1 colorless.Mutavaultnon traditional seen in rogue lists, Factory preferred for it's +1/+1 when 2 in play.Bloodghast (4) non traditional seen in fewer lists, though has tricks with Landfall mechanics.Gravecrawler (4) non traditional seen in rogue lists.Filthnon traditional seen in rogue lists.

Other kill conditions, though less traditional:The Racknon traditional seen in rogue lists.Tombstalkernon traditional seen in rogue lists.Bitterblossomnon traditional seen in rogue lists.

Color splashes:non traditional, as most lists now are mono black/Liliana Pox.Loam Pox: References for those that may want to splash green.Pernicious Deed Board sweeper, doesn't hit Planeswalkers.Maelstrom Pulse Removal that can 2 for 1 against multiple permanents of the same name.Abrupt Decay Uncounterable removal, a B/G Legacy staple since printed in Return to Ravnica.Crop Rotation Tutor for land, usually for versions running The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale.
~Dredge/Loam/Entomb tricks:Dakmor Salvage Dredging land.Darkblast Dredging removal.Life from the Loam Dredging "Crucible of the Worlds."Cabal Pit Removal with Threshold, recurrable with Life from the Loam.Syphon Life Abuseable kill condition with Life from the Loam.Worm Harvest Abuseable kill condition with Life from the Loam.Entomb Tutor for any card to the graveyard, like a Nether Spirit.Vampire Hexmage Tricks with "Dark Depths."Volrath's Stronghold Can Entomb it to the graveyard, get it into hand with Life from the Loam, cast it, put Vampire Hexmage on top of your library, draw it, play Dark Depths, Vampire Hexmage, now you have a 20/20 indestructible. Dark Depths Tricks with "Vampire Hexmage."The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale Prevents opposing creature based decks from overrunning you like Goblins / Affinity / Elves that get out so many creatures so fast.
~B/G Lands:Verdant CatacombsBayouBarren Moor

3b) Sideboard:
~Graveyard Disruption:Leyline of the Void Starts in play from the opening hand.Extirpate "Split second" Graveyard hate, almost uncounterable.Nihil Spellbomb Graveyard removal that cantrips for a card.Surgical Extraction Graveyard removal that removes all copies from the opponent.
~Hand Disruption:Thoughtseize Usually not maindeck because of the -2 life.Duress More common over Thoughtseize, almost all decks have pleanty of non-creature, non-land targets.
~Creature Disruption:Ensnaring Bridge against larger creatures, Show and Tell decks, but also effective against creature decks because Pox can empty its hand fairly quickly.Engineered Plague against tribal decks.Perish against Green creature based decks.Spinning Darkness "free" to cast against non-black creatures, +3 life & creature removal can help against fast decks.Infest -2/-2 to all creatures for 3, effective against swarm/overrun type creature decks.Smother Spot removal, prevents regeneration.The Abyss Recurring removal.Dystopia Recurring removal against Green & White permanent based decks, whether it's creatures like Maverick/Death & Taxes/Elves, or Enchantments like Enchantress.KarakasLoam Pox A target for Entomb to Life from the Loam
~Other Disruption:Krosan GripLoam Pox Split Second Artifact/Enchantment hate.Pithing Needle A cheap alternative to stop things like Planeswalkers, Equipments, or other artifact, creature based activations.Ratchet Bomb "Sweeper" against non land permanents based on Converted Mana Cost.Powder Keg "Sweeper" against Artifacts & Creatures based on Converted Mana Cost, doesn't hit Planeswalkers or Enchantments.Nether Void A "taxing" effect that can lock the opponent out of the game after establishing control of the game state.

Re: [Primer/Deck] Pox

7) 20 match ups: (Based mostly on decks that have performed with some level of consistent, higher placings since Return to Ravnica Legacy)

01) RUG (Moderate-Heavy playtesting recommended, a more common match up)Pre sideboard They are a tempo based aggro deck, their goal is to take you down before you can establish control of the board. Disrupt them as much as you can in the beginning, they will attempt to fight back with Daze & Spell Pierce taxing counters, while swinging with their cheap creatures like Delver of Secrets & Nimble Mongoose. The most vital spells against them is your creature removal, so spend your discard on them first, once their hand is out of counters or even empty, start eating their creatures away with your control. Also be mindful at all times that they have access to burn spells, so do what you can to keep your life total out of burn range, once you're at 3 or less they can finish you off with a Lightning bolt even after you establish control. Also if you're maindecking Bojuka Bog you will have an even greater advantage against RUG since they want "threshold" & "card types" in the graveyard for Goyf & Mongoose.Post sideboardSpinning Darkness is a decent card to bring in against this match up since they are basically "free" to cast, primarily to use against delvers, since it can't target a Nimble Mongoose, while Tarmogoyf's toughness may require tricks with doing additional damage with either Nether Spirit blocking or a Cursed Scroll activation. They may bring in something like Ancient Grudge to destroy your Cursed Scrolls & 2 for 1 them when you cast a second.

02) Stoneblade (Moderate-Heavy playtesting recommended, a more common match up)Pre sideboard They are a more control type deck, their goal will be to establish control of the board, while netting card advantage with Stoneforge Mystic, Snapcaster Mage, Jace, the Mind Sculptor & potential sweepers like Engineered Explosives. They will try to take you down with either Batterskull or Lingering Soul tokens in addition to their other creatures, & sometimes even a Jace ultimate. Disrupt them from the beginning, as the goal with most opponents playing Pox, attacking their hand is the way to start burning your discard on their vital spells. The combination of Land / Hand / Creature disruption is more effective against control type decks like Stoneblade, even if they bounce a Batterskull back to their hand, they have to pay 5 to replay it by itself, and you can even prevent that by reducing their lands so much. Jace can be a bit annoying since most of the time you'll only be swinging for 2 when you first start attacking, as it will require more than 1 Factory or Nether Spirit or Cursed Scroll activation to take out Jace, so try not to let Jace come into play by getting it out of their hand. Making them play everything or discard it, then trying to control the board state with all your removal, also watch out for Swords to Plowshares against your Nether Spirit.Post sideboard More disruption like Duress is a good sideboard move against Stoneblade, cutting them off from important stuff early, & preventing them from keeping vital instants/sorceries in hand. They will likely bring in Sword of Feast and Famine because of it's pro-black, +2/+2 & since you're a mono black deck, they know you won't likely be able to destroy it, as a Stoneforge Mystic target, & try to play around your discard by either using their own, or backing it up with counterspells if you try to make them discard their Stoneforge Mystic Equipment in hand.

03) UW control variants (Moderate-Heavy playtesting recommended, a more common match up)Pre sideboard There are a couple ways to go about this deck as of recent, some do CounterbalanceSensei's Divining Top, some also run Rest in PeaceHelm of Obedience as their win condition, others have a more miracle focus & run more Entreat the Angles in addition to Terminus. This match can be a bit trickier because they have alot of enchantment / artifact options that you can't answer directly once they make play, & against your kill conditions, Cursed Scroll can be answered by Engineered Explosives, & they can do both Swords to Plowshares & Terminus to put Nether Spirit & Mishra's Factory on the bottom of your deck, or just remove them from the game. Attack their hand as much as possible to prevent them from getting their enchants into play, especially if they're running Counterbalance. If they are stuck in top deck mode without a Top in play, you will be in the best position to keep swinging against them because they will have to top deck an answer over the course of turns.Post sideboardPithing Needle if you are running it is very good here, as it can stop Jace, Helm of Obedience, & Sensei's Divining Top alone. They will likely bring in more artifact hate on your Cursed Scroll's alone with Disenchant type stuff. They also might have a Path to Exile and/or a 4th Terminus in the sideboard, since they usually only maindeck 3, and their other removal is less effective against you like Supreme Verdict. Another card to note is Detention Sphere since it is ran in some builds, and that can answer Nether Spirit properly, & even multiple copies of Cursed Scroll if you get 1 or more in play.

04) BUG aggro (Moderate playtesting recommended, a more common match up)Pre sideboard They are an aggro deck, by namesake of course that should be obvious. Anyhow, They run disruption in the form of discard, counterspells & some removal like Abrupt Decay, while their creatures are things like Delver of SecretsDeathrite ShamanTarmogoyf & sometimes even Tombstalker, more midrange versions will run even Dark Confidant & Shardless Agent for tricks with Ancestral Vision or just their regular cheap spells that give them a freebie to cast like Hymn to Tourach as an example, or just one of their other creatures. Use your disruption early to cut into their aggro strategy, then establish control of the board with your removal, they don't have burn so the battle is almost entirely on the permanents in play. If you're maindecking Bojuka Bog it will help keep Tarmogoyf smaller & Deathrite Shaman from some of it's fuel for eating at your life if it sticks in play. Also if you're maindecking Bojuka Bog it can eat their Deathrite Shaman fuel & shrink their Tarmogoyf's, also cutting off the "delve" reduction cost for Tombstalker.Post sideboard They will likely bring in something to properly answer your Nether Spirit's, anything from traditional graveyard hate, or something like Scavenging Ooze that also doubles as a threat. They also might have Jace, the Mind Sculptor in their sideboard for a late game strategy against slower decks or the mirror match, & might bring in 1-2 against you.

05) BUG control (Moderate-Heavy playtesting recommended, a more common match up)Pre sideboard Being a control deck, your disruption that takes their hand & lands will be more effective. This is where you'll find BUG lists that have a higher focus on planeswalkers, so they will have Jace, & their own Liliana's as well. As far as their creatures, Deathrite Shaman & Tarmogoyf are so good they are even found in control decks of BUG variants. They also might have Vendilion Clique. Since their creature focus isn't as much as BUG aggro/midrange strategies, you will have an easier time controlling the combat phase from taking you down, so they may start to try & tick up a Jace since your might not have any threats right away, at worst, they will be preventing damage because you'll have to swing into a Jace +2'ing every turn, to prevent it from using it's ultimate on you. Also if you're maindecking Bojuka Bog it can eat their Deathrite Shaman fuel & shrink their Tarmogoyf's.Post sideboardDuress if it's in your sideboard gives you more disruption against a deck that usually holds cards in hand. Pithing Needle hits their planeswalkers & Deathrite Shaman abilities. Also similar as BUG aggro, they will likely bring in something to properly answer your Nether Spirits in the form of graveyard hate like Surgical Extraction.

06) Jund (Moderate playtesting recommended, a more common match up)Pre sideboard One of the newer decks with more recent success, Jund is another aggro match up with a focus on the best green Tarmogoyf, redLightning Bolt, & black Thoughtseize available in the format from a mid-range type aggro deck. This is also one of the homes for Dark Confidant However you have so much creature removal, what really matters is the fact that if they get you low enough they can finish you off with top deck burn, but luckily they aren't a fast aggro deck like zoo or burn. Spend the first bit disrupting them accordingly, while Nether Spirit & Cursed Scroll can kill enough of their threats like Dark Confidant, Deathrite Shaman & Bloodbraid Elf. Also to note they run their own Liliana of the Veil so drop your own without losing it to a creature, since Bloodbraid Elf has haste, it can come out and swing right at your own Liliana, before they kill it & then drop their own. Also to note, some version of Jund might run Punishing Fire & Grove of the Burnwillows, but with a focus on Land Destruction, you can prevent the recurring life gain from Grove. Also if you're maindecking Bojuka Bog it can eat their Deathrite Shaman fuel & shrink their Tarmogoyf's.Post sideboardSpinning Darkness from the sideboard, & Perish can be decent to bring in here because it kills nearly all of their creatures, except for Dark Confidant. They will likely bring in something like Ancient Grudge to deal with your Cursed Scrolls, & some sort of graveyard hate like Surgical Extraction to remove your Nether Spirits properly.

07) Dredge (Combo, Light playtesting recommended)Pre sideboard Unlike most combo type match up's, this is one that is actually a harder game 1, if you are maindecking Bojuka Bog you will have a better edge -vs- not having them maindeck, but aside from that, making them discard is something they can benefit from, while making them sacrifice creatures is almost useless against things like Bridge from Below in the graveyard. Because there's almost no way to establish true control against this deck because they will eventually swarm you, & your disruption means little if anything at all, game 1 is the hardest, but like most decks in the format, game 1 is always the hardest against dredge, this is a match that will rely more on your sideboard for proper graveyard hate.Post sideboardEnsnaring Bridge is good here if you're sideboarding it to prevent them from swarming you with their 2/2's, & Pox can fairly easily empty it's hand fast enough. Leyline of the VoidTormod's CryptSurgical Extraction, whatever your graveyard hate is, bring it in & try to prevent them from dredge, if it's extraction, removing all copies of things like Bridge from Below is another good strategy. For them, they will probably do 1 of 2 things, either run a "transformational sideboard" that turns into Enlightened Tutor & Grindstone + Painter's Servant with Unmask back up, the other option is to bring in stuff that answers artifacts / enchantments with things like Nature's Claim, while their discard in Cabal Therapy can hit your spell cast graveyard hate like Extraction.

09) Ad Nauseam Storm (ANT/TES) (Combo, Moderate playtesting recommended)Pre sideboard They are a combo deck, though aside from a turn 1 kill from their side, you can still interact with them, disrupting them hard from the beginning with discard. Eat their hand apart as much as you can, aside from that, they will try to combo off & being a storm combo deck, the more cards in their hand, the higher chance they have of going off. They also will have access to Past in Flames so even after ripping their hand apart they can still try to cast this, so keep pressure on their resources so they can't even cast it. Also if you're Bojuka Boging maindeck, it can help prevent flashback shenanagins from the opponent. Liliana of the Veil is good here at putting them into topdeck mode, & once it resolves, it can prevent them from truly recovering with an essential "soft lock" that keeps making them discard every turn.Post sideboardDuress from the sideboard helps the most since your primary goal is to keep them from going off & attacking their hand, forcing them into top deck mode remains key. They will likely not change too much since their sideboard is mostly wish targets & stuff for opposing counterspells, so your discard will remain effective.

10) High Tide (Combo, Moderate playtesting recommended)Pre sideboard They are a storm like combo deck, but don't require as many cards in hand, just [cards]High Tide[cards] & Time Spiral & a number of Islands in play, they will run more disruption unlike other faster combo decks in the form of more counterspells like Flusterstorm & Force of Will, while also being able to tutor for them. Land disruption in addition to discard is very effective against High Tide combo decks, because they need a minimum of Islands in play in order to go off. Resolving a Liliana of the Veil is also very good here, if you get them low on cards & keep making them discard, it can keep enough pressure that prevents them from combo'ing, since they need a minimum of 2 cards in hand (High tide/Time spiral) to go off.Post sideboardDuress from your sideboard is perfect against a deck with no creatures. They will possibly side in more Flusterstorm to use against your disruption, but you have so much disruption that they will be forced to go off as early as possible, & if your disruption hits hard enough, they won't even be able to do that. Also with so much discard, the option to Surgical Extraction or Extirpate after making them discard a vital card to the graveyard like Cunning Wish, Time Spiral, or High Tide, however they will likely sideboard a High Tide in case of that possibility.

11) UR Delver (Light-Moderate playtesting recommended)Pre sideboard They are an aggro deck with a focus on Burn & Counterspells like Lightning Bolt & Spell Pierce as some examples. They also run Price of Progress so be careful about your nonbasic land count & if you get low, you may want to hold a wasteland untapped so you can target your own non basic in response to reduce damage you take, your non basic's being Wasteland/Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth/Mishra's Factory. As far as their creatures go however, they are weaker and all killable with a blocking Nether Spirit or a Cursed Scroll activation. Try to prevent them from getting your life total too low, so they don't just top deck a burn spell late game & steal a win after you establish control of the board & start attacking.Post sideboardSpinning Darkness from the sideboard, & they will likely bring in something to deal with your Nether Spirits properly like Surgical Extraction if they are in their sideboard. Aside from that, they will be focused the same as previous, trying to burn you down & counter vital spells, so you just have to disrupt them early against their hand, & control the board state with your sacrifice a creature effects.

12) Show and Tell variants (Sneak/Omni) (Combo, Moderate-Heavy playtesting recommended, a more common match up)Pre sideboard They are a combo deck that can potentially go off as early as even turn 1, but more likely turns 2-4, the later the more likely. Luckily however, your "Sacrifice a creature" effects are very good here when resolved, because they will focus on resolving things like Show and Tell to put a single creature bomb into play like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn / Griselbrand. After that they will back it up with counterspells, so they will likely try to fight back the discard you throw at them early. If they drop a Griselbrand off of the Show and Tell it will likely draw them a ton of cards, & if they drop either bomb from a Sneak Attack it will come out swinging. So you still need to focus on preventing them from casting their combo that is Show and tell / Sneak attack. Land disruption is also helpful here, especially since they run sol lands like Ancient Tomb & need blue mana in order to use BrainstormPonderPreordain as well as Show and Tell itself. The difference between Sneak & Show & Omnitell is that 1 version runs Sneak Attacks, the other runs Burning Wish & Omniscience, but their primary overall goals are basically the same, cheat something big into play & use it to kill.Post sideboardEnsnaring Bridge is good here if you're sideboarding it. Duress is a good card to bring in from the sideboard, if they get stuck with one of their bombs in hand, they can't drop it if they can never cheat it into play with their Sneak & Show's, in which is an actual name for that version of the deck. They will likely bring in Leyline of Sanctity since lists commonly run the Leylines in their sideboard, especially useful against a heavy discard strategy like pox. If it's Omnitell then their sideboard will be more Wish dedicated, so their sideboard in options will be more narrow as they may not be able to fit Leyline's into their sideboard, focusing more for the anti-counterspell match up.

13) Reanimator (Combo, Moderate playtesting recommended)Pre sideboard They are a fast combo like deck, similar to Show and Tell, except their goal will be to get a bomb into the graveyard with stuff like Careful Study & Entomb, then put it into play with ExhumeReanimate & Animate Dead. Hit them early with as much discard as you can, preventing this from happening, after they are pushed into top deck mode, they can still combo if they topdeck an Entomb or have to discard a Creature to the graveyard with your own disruption, so be careful with Liliana of the Veil / Hymn to Tourach but even if they get a creature to the graveyard, it means little if they can't reanimate it. Also if you're maindecking Bojuka Bogs it will give you an increased edge against the deck.Post sideboardEnsnaring Bridge is good here if you're sideboarding it. Graveyard hate is the obvious choice here, whether it's Leyline of the Void, Tormod's Crypt or Surgical Extraction. From their sideboard Iona, Shield of Emeria will likely come in if they're not maindecking it already, and of course, naming black if it resolves.

14) Elves (Combo, Moderate playtesting recommended)Pre sideboard They are a combo deck, however, they have a focus on casting lots of elves, so after ripping Glimpse of Nature / Natural Order / Green Sun's Zenith from their hand, which is the combo elements of their deck, it will just be an army of elves you have to deal with, so after attacking their hand, prevent them from swarming you with your creature disruption. They have alot of elves, though they are lower in their power/toughness, even a small army of 1/1's can do some damage, so Cursed Scroll, Nether Spirit, & making Mishra's Factorys into 2/2's to block will help keep them down.Post sideboardSpinning Darkness from the sideboard, & Perish is the most popular card that comes in against elves from a swamp deck with that option, & being a tribal deck, Engineered Plague naming Elves can really set them back. For them, they might bring in more to answer your Cursed Scrolls in the form of artifact hate, & since many elf lists have been splashing black since Return to Ravnica Legacy, it might be in the form of Abrupt Decay.

15) Merfolk (Light playtesting recommended)Pre sideboard The second tribal deck on this list, Merfolk focuses more on getting out "Lords" that make eachother bigger, however you have enough creature disruption that you can prevent them from getting too big. They will also have Mutavault & Aether Vial so they can cheat a Merfolk into play at any time based on the number of counters on it, & have access to animating the land, which sharing creature types, fits in perfectly with Merfolk's +1/+1 to other Merfolk abilities on most of their Fish. Their back up will be counterspells like Daze & Force of Will, and card draw like Standstill. Use your disruption early to hit their hand and keep them off of too many creatures, also getting out a Nether Spirit or a Cursed Scroll is very effective since it can eat their Fish by either blocking or just taking them out directly, by themselves, the Merfolk are basically 2/2's.Post sideboardSpinning Darkness from the sideboard, & Engineered Plague is decent here, but since their Merfolk make all other's bigger, it negates the effect, but at the same time, it helps keep them in check so your Nether Spirits / Cursed Scrolls / blocking Mishra's Factory's can actually take them out -vs- them being out of range & too big, while further helping prevent that with "sacrifice a creature" effects. Since most decks have some graveyard hate in their sideboard, & your Nether Spirits keep coming back, they might bring in something to deal with them properly, but other than that the deck will be the same overall.

16) Goblins (Moderate playtesting recommended)Pre sideboard The last tribal deck on this list, and probably the hardest battle to go against. Unlike the other 2 which you can gain proper control over and force them into top deck mode while controlling the board state, Goblins have a focus on massive card advantage & huge swarming, so 1 for 1'ing creatures isn't as effective, & hitting their hand only goes so far when they keep refilling it with Goblin Ringleader, so if you can, make them discard Ringleader's early, as well as Goblin Matron since it will net Ringleaders & play them off of that. They can dump alot of goblins into play in a single turn alone via Goblin Warchief & Aether Vial. Turn 1 they also have the option with Goblin Lackey so don't let it connect and drop free goblins into play, but with a heavy focus on creature disruption, it shouldn't be hard to keep early Lackey's from hitting.Post sideboardEngineered Plague is a definite effective sideboard to come in, since the vast majority of their goblins will be 1/1's. They might bring in a Goblin Chieftain from the sideboard to fight that strategy, as well as possibly Surgical Extraction if they're running it as a proper answer to your Nether Spirits.

17) Belcher (Combo, Moderate playtesting recommended)Pre sideboard They are a combo deck, but as far as combo decks go that are so explosive, they are THEE combo deck, if they are on the play, you're likely dead, if they're on the draw, then you can hit them with discard, so eat at their hand as much as you can, this deck above all other combo decks has more of a turn 1 combo focus over all the others you'll likely see in the format, if they swarm out a bunch of 1/1 goblins, it will be hard to recover. The key cards to make them discard are Burning WishGoblin Charbelcher & Empty the Warrens. Keeping their hand as close to empty as you can is the best route of success against this deck, just like against most other storm type combo decks.Post sideboardDuress helps here, Engineered Plague can name goblins as well, but duress can hit Goblin Charbelcher in addition to affecting Burning Wish & Empty the Warrens. They will likely not change much sideboard because they have a wish focus, backed up by stuff for blue decks counterspells, not so much a heavy discard focus.

18) Zombardment/Zombies (Light-Moderate playtesting recommended, however a less common match up)Pre sideboard This deck has a focus on abusing Cabal TherapyGoblin Bombardment and Carrion Feeder with things like GravecrawlerBloodghast and Lingering Souls, because of Landfall tricks with Bloodghast, it will be a bit harder to answer, but you still have Scroll, Factory & Nether Spirit to deal with it. Gravecrawlers as well even though they can keep coming back, but later game they can cast 1, then a number of them from the graveyard, as well as making as many as 4 1/1's from a single Lingering Souls, giving them a potential swarm strategy, so once you disrupt them as much as you can in the beginning, try to kill them before that happens without being too overly aggressive, the main focus keeping disruption up with your land/hand/creature removal. Also if you're maindecking Bojuka Bogs that will help against their deck since they utilize the graveyard on a higher level than most decks.Post sideboard Graveyard hate like Leyline of the VoidSurgical Extraction & Tormod's Crypt are useful here, preventing them from gaining too much advantage with flashbacking so much from their graveyard. They will likely bring in something to deal with your Cursed Scrolls in the form of artifact hate like Disenchant. As well as the possibility of their own graveyard hate since you can keep recurring your own creature from the graveyard via Nether Spirit.

19) 12 post (Moderate playtesting recommended, however a less common match up)Pre sideboard They are basically a half combo/half ramp deck, so against the combo, focus your discard on their stuff like [cards]Show and Tell[/card] & their ramp like Primeval Titan, Land disruption is huge against this deck because they love Cloudpost, & they can't cast the 10+ mana cost Eldrazi bombs if they can't pay for them. They don't run much beyond that, it's just a heavy focus on getting out posts & dropping Eldrazi into play, so keep eating their resources accordingly.Post sideboardEnsnaring Bridge is good here if you're sideboarding it. Based on the list that won San Diego earlier in 2013, they will likely bring in something like Chalice of the Void & maybe even Flusterstorm to help fight the early discard.

20) Pox The mirror match! (Moderate playtesting recommended, however a less common match up)Pre sideboard If this actually happens, though not likely, the main thing to remember is that you're both playing the same deck, with a same strategy, so you have to out play them, & hope you get a little luckier with your draws than the opponent, neither side will get their kill fast. Luckily if you get out a Nether Spirit first, they won't be able to answer it properly. Also to note, you want to get out Liliana of the Veil early, so you can potentially get it up high enough to ultimate & cut them off of their resources if they start getting alot of permanents into play. Try to be the aggressive deck since they can't answer your Scrolls / Nether Spirits properly.Post sideboard Remember that what you do, they will likely be doing too, however you still have to be able to answer opposing creatures from their graveyard, so you still want to bring in your graveyard hate regardless. As far as opposing Cursed Scrolls go, while you can even control their other kill conditions like Cursed Scroll with Pithing Needle

Re: [Primer/Deck] Pox

Originally Posted by Sughayyer

Great primer! Could you add more bw and bg lists as examples? Also you could mention cards like worm harvest, syphon life, etc.
Excelent primer nonetheless

I was only able to find very few B/G Pox lists that had success at larger events (100 or so players+) that finished in the top placings, since this deck is more uncommon i did top 32 instead of top 16 and they were still hard to come by, though at the request, I did a re-hit with a lower threshold, like 80+ instead of 100+, and I still didn't find any additional B/G pox lists to the ones already noted. Forgive me if things came off the wrong way but I try to note stuff based on success since these are in the established section. As far as B/W pox, those lists were even harder to come by at top 32 or higher.

Also Bloodghast & Nether Spirit are both noted.

Also Worm Harvest/Syphon Life noted for it's tricks with Life from the Loam in the B/G pox as a kill condition. ^.^

Re: [Primer/Deck] Pox

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Re: [Primer/Deck] Pox

Originally Posted by feline

I was only able to find very few B/G Pox lists that had success at larger events (100 or so players+) that finished in the top placings, since this deck is more uncommon i did top 32 instead of top 16 and they were still hard to come by, though at the request, I did a re-hit with a lower threshold, like 80+ instead of 100+, and I still didn't find any additional B/G pox lists to the ones already noted. Forgive me if things came off the wrong way but I try to note stuff based on success since these are in the established section. As far as B/W pox, those lists were even harder to come by at top 32 or higher.

Also Bloodghast & Nether Spirit are both noted.

Also Worm Harvest/Syphon Life noted for it's tricks with Life from the Loam in the B/G pox as a kill condition. ^.^

I know it's a a bit outdated ad not a big tournament, but I did post a report some time ago here. Anyways, you already did a very good job, the only possible card of interest that I see missing is Drop of Honey.

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Re: [Primer/Deck] Pox

Originally Posted by zenitramleirdag

another good one! i can see this being good in a meta with very few combo..its like a black tarmagoyf!

If your build has less all-players-sac effects, creatures are fine. But that Wight is like a Black version of Boneyard Wurm. If you're in a very narrow meta with lots of small creatures, I'd say go for it.

The best 'creature' I've tested recently is Haunted Platemail. 1-of in the deck. Immune to most removal and harder to burn. Equipping him on my lone Nether Spirit gives me a Goyf killer 6/6 that doesn't stop my Mishra's Factories. Alone, he's bolt resistant and makes a great weenie wall. That and he's a decent clock.

These creature builds sound as if they should be in a deck without Innocent Blood or Pox. The problem is you're going to have to stuff your Pox deck with lots of 'sac-fodder' if you're going the creature route and unfortunately, that never worked for me. The other colors have better creatures on the whole. And I don't like splashing. I don't run budget Pox, but I'm glad my deck costs half of my friend's Land Still deck and can still kick some serious ass.

Re: [Primer/Deck] Pox

I agree. I like Haunted Plate Mail in a build where Nether Spirit is the only creature. In my mono-black build it has been pretty good. I am usually able to keep it out of my hand until I have 4 mana to play it through SD Top library manipulation. I've been experimenting with splashing green recently and have been testing Garruck, Relentless in that slot. Some games it is better than others. I like that it can kill a weenie and then produce some more for deathtouch chumping and eventually wincon. Other times it is slow and expensive, and has the same problem as Lilly in that if they have more than one creature out it is troublesome to play other than a high cc Innocent Blood. But if you do happen to have Lilly and Garruck out at the same time- ooh boy.